A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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Once she decided to make her entrance, Cloquet's first baby of 2022 didn't waste any time. Rowyn Oak Jubie was born at 11 p.m. Jan. 2 at Community Memorial Hospital, less than an hour after her mother and dad arrived at the hospital. "It was quick and intense," said mother Sara Haverkamp. "There wasn't even time for pain meds." Sara and Rowyn's dad, Jimmy Jubie Jr., had been trying to get pregnant for 10 years. When Haverkamp's daughter, 14-year-old Jayda, hit age 12, they sort of gave up. And...
Nordic skiers from six schools descended on Cloquet for a rare evening ski meet Tuesday, held on the lighted trail loop at Pine Valley. While skiers sped off into the darkness like clockwork every 30 seconds for nearly three hours - spanning boys and girls varsity, junior varsity and junior high races - volunteers kept things ticking. Inside the chalet they served warm food, organized racing bibs and kept the wax room running. Outside, even more volunteers timed the race from start to finish,...
After a rough, Covid-19- pandemic-ridden 2020, the year 2021 was destined to be better, right? Well, the jury hasn’t reached a decision yet. There were highs and lows, as the pandemic continued to alter life as we knew it before 2020. There’s a vaccine, which has helped ease the naked fear of contracting the virus. There has been mostly in-person learning this school year and many of the events around schools are back to normal. Cities held modified annual celebrations. But Covid spikes continue, with infections breaking records even now, so...
Reader Kim Matteen spotted a reference to Cloquet in the latest issue of Smithsonian Magazine. In its Prologue section, under the heading of "Origins," Max Ufberg writes about the rise of snowboarding from a "goofy" pastime to an Olympics sport. Vern Wicklund, as the story goes, was messing around with modified sleds when he was a teenager in Cloquet, as early as 1917. In 1939, he and relatives Harvey and Gunnar Burgeson, all now living in the Chicago area, patented what is generally considered...
Mary Vnuk, 83, of Palm Harbor, Florida, and Cloquet, Minnesota, passed away Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021, in Palm Harbor. She was born in Cloquet to Ira and Jessie Sell on Dec. 11, 1937. Mary Frances Sell married Richard John Joseph Vnuk on Aug. 15, 1964. She graduated from St. Scholastica's School of Nursing and worked initially as a floor and emergency room nurse before becoming a nursing instructor for both St. Luke's School of Nursing in Duluth and Lake Superior Community College. She also helped...
Kerry Rodd’s column about the late Rol Bromberg last week was right on, but I wanted to add a few of my favorite memories. I first met Bromberg when he was my physical education teacher at Cloquet Junior High. I remember a certain quarter that was dedicated to wrestling. Now, Bromberg was a college wrestler himself at Bemidji State and spent a few hours teaching us amateur wrestling rules and tactics. With some preliminary practice and demonstrations, he divided the classroom of all boys into w...
The Cloquet VFW got a jump on the New Year's Eve celebrations, with a dance that started at 1 in the afternoon Friday. The Chmielewski family, including Florian, Florian Jr., Patty, and Nick provided song and music for the many, mostly older, couples at the dance....
The Disabled American Veterans Carlton County Chapter 18 will hold a clothing drive every Saturday in January from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Cloquet and Moose Lake. The DAV will have a truck by the green boxes at the armory in Cloquet and Lamperts Lumberyard in Moose Lake, accepting clothing, bedding, purses, shoes, towels and jackets. Please don’t bring furniture or electronics....
The postponed senior Christmas party has been rescheduled and rebranded a “Welcome 2022” party from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13, at the Cloquet Senior Center by the hockey arena. Enjoy a roast pork dinner for $4, and bingo (with prizes) sponsored by the Thrivent Action team. Call 218-879-5870 to save your space....
The Pine Knot office in Cloquet will be closed Friday, Jan. 7, for staff time off, returning on Monday. If you urgently need to speak to someone, call 218-213-1231 and leave a message or email [email protected]....
David Tushar, a former Carlton County priest who was placed on leave in July 2019 due to allegations of sexual abuse of a minor over 40 years ago, died Dec. 23 in Las Vegas. Tushar had served as a priest in the Diocese of Duluth since 1985, serving in Carlton, Sawyer and Cloquet at various times during the last 16 years of his career. Tushar was added to a list of “credibly accused” priests by the Duluth Diocese in January 2021. The allegations stemmed from his earlier service while he was serving as a Holy Cross Father in Niles, Illinois in...
Minnesotans looking for private health insurance have until Saturday, Jan. 15, to enroll through MNsure, the state’s health insurance exchange, for coverage starting Feb. 1. Visit MNsure.org or call 651-539-2099....
Fifth District commissioner Gary Peterson was chosen as the new chairman of the Carlton County board of commissioners at the annual re-organizational meeting Tuesday, Jan. 4. Fourth District commissioner Mark Thell became the vice chairman of the county board and chairman of the committee of the whole meetings for 2022. For a number of years, leadership roles for the board and the committee meetings have rotated with each board member takings a turn. The board approved meeting times and days. Regular county board meetings will continue to be...
A five-judge panel is ready to draw new boundaries for Minnesota congressional and legislative districts if necessary. The panel met Tuesday to hear from lawyers representing people who are trying to influence the once-a-decade process through litigation and their own proposed maps. The judges heard arguments for and against four separate proposals. The differences among the four plans are detailed and sometimes hard to detect without a close look. They range from adding or subtracting entire counties from congressional districts to dividing...
All Carlton County families are welcome. Professor Ryan Hjelle will present virtually this month on digital addiction in the second of a six-part series on Digital Wellness for Teens and Tweens at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 11. Hjelle is a University of Minnesota Duluth professor who spoke about sleep and teens in November. To join this free online presentation, go to meet.google.com/rwh-ppnp-oib or dial 1-434-886-0181 and enter pin: 691 293 364#. RSVP or send questions to [email protected]....
Carlton County residents are encouraged to recycle their fresh-cut Christmas trees during Treecycling, a free program with dropoff locations at the Sappi gatehouse entrance in Cloquet and Moose Lake compost site across from the city garage through Jan. 17. Christmas trees, like yard waste, are banned from landfills in Minnesota. Please remove all ornaments, lights, tree stands and tree bags before bringing trees. Residents can recycle holiday lights at the Carlton County Transfer Station at 1950 Highway 210....
The city of Cloquet is looking for a few good men and women to step up and serve on several local boards and commissions that help oversee various governmental departments or entities. Currently, there are openings on the Planning Commission, Parks Commission, Cloquet Public Library Board, Cloquet Area Fire District Board and the Citizens Advisory Board, which helps police department hiring, firing and disciplinary actions, among other things. Council members approved the reappointment of seven...
A Cloquet man was arrested Thursday, Dec. 30, after leading Fond du Lac police on an extended chase and then attempted to harm an officer with his vehicle. Stephen James Smith, 29, faces felony charges of fleeing police in a motor vehicle, second-degree assault with a vehicle, third-degree drug possession and misdemeanor charges of introducing contraband into a jail and giving a false name. According to the criminal complaint, Fond du Lac police attempted to stop Smith for failing to signal and driving without headlights along with speeding on...
Ask Cloquet-Esko-Carlton Nordic skiing head coach Arne Maijala about the hometown ski meet this week and the conversation will be as much about all the people who help make it happen as much as the skiers who participate. Nordic skiers from six schools descended on Cloquet for a rare evening ski meet Tuesday, held on the lighted trail loop at Pine Valley. Volunteers include parents of past skiers, former coaches, former Cloquet skiers and a handful of folks who just want to support Nordic...
A motion by Carlton school board member Eryn Szymczak for no board member pay in 2022 died for a lack of a second Monday, when board members held their organizational meeting. “With our budget deficit, this could really help put some money back into the school system,” said Szymczak, referring to the ongoing annual budget deficits of nearly $1 million a year and the board’s recent decision to continue with both a high school and elementary school in the district, which will make drastic cuts a n...
Rebuilding Cloquet after the 1918 fire spurred not just growth of the wood products industries, including paper production, but also what are known as "spin-off" developments. The Northern Printery, established in 1923 by Parker Childs, remains as one of those businesses. Rick Luke, the current owner, has spent the better part of his life working in the original building at 206 Avenue C. "I started here in 1969 as a trainee for high school my senior year," Luke said. "It was called vocational...
With 2021 in the rearview mirror, the Pine Knot News reached out to a variety of local leaders to ask them what they hope Carlton County will see in 2022. Here’s what those who responded said: Minnesota Rep. Mike Sundin “As we reflect on the difficult times that we have experienced in the last couple of years, I’d like to thank the people that have contributed to keeping us healthy and safe as best as they could. Health care professionals and public servants of Carlton County deserve to be recognized for their efforts in safeguarding publi...
The whole point of a representative democracy (which is the form of government we have used in the United States for a couple of hundred years or so) is to elect one person for every certain number of people. We could use a different form of representation, maybe letting each group of like-minded people have a representative, like plumbers can elect a representative, or dog lovers get a representative, or any other myriad ways to elect leaders, but we don’t. It’s based on population, the tru...
When Mary Jo was 7, someone called her “Fatso” as she and her family were walking out of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart church on a sunny Sunday morning. The offending girl was Mary Jo’s age and she leaned into Mary Jo’s ear as the crush of exiting churchgoers pressed them together, the Confirmed adults reaching for the Holy Water font, dutifully dipping their fingers. “Yer a fatso,” she’d whispered and then pulled away, back to her place between her two parents, who remained perfectly ign...
Delores Hilda (Selen) Wolner, 96, of Cloquet went to be with the Lord on Dec. 28, 2021, dying from natural causes. She lived her later years at Inter-faith Care Center in Carlton. Dee was born on May 15, 1925, on her family's farm in Blackhoof Township to Wallace J. Selen and Julia M. (Bentfield) Selen. They moved to Cloquet during the Great Depression and Dee graduated from Cloquet High School in 1943. She then worked in administrative roles for the Duluth News Tribune, Consolidated Abstract,...
